


Grace in Blood

by mistyaiya



Category: AoJE, Jane Eyre - All Media Types, The Autobiography of Jane Eyre
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-28
Updated: 2014-05-28
Packaged: 2018-01-26 22:11:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1704374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistyaiya/pseuds/mistyaiya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The events of the night of 'Blood' from Grace Poole’s point of view</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grace in Blood

**Author's Note:**

> Written for AoJE Fan Wednesdays on tumblr. This gets a bit… bloody.

Grace Poole woke with a start; the second she moved, the crick in her neck radiated to her left shoulder. She reached up to try to rub the pain from her neck. She should know better at this stage: do not fall asleep at your desk, no matter how comfortable that second quarter report looks at one in the morning. She looked around, slightly disorientated and bleary-eyed. What had woken her? Usually she once she crashed, she would sleep through until she heard Ricardo preparing breakfast in the kitchen, and rushed to her room, the second spare room really, to shower and change for the day.

A yell, a cry! And from the ward! Had she been of a more romantic disposition her heart would have stood still in her chest. As it was, she bolted up, ran through the back corridor to the elevator door, hidden behind a closet door in the whitewashed wall, and pushed the up button. The doors opened faster than she would have imagined, and she arrived to a crimson scene in about twenty seconds.

Ben Mason lay on the floor, half on his side, clutching his neck, but blood ran through his fingers, splashing on the floor, some even spraying onto the white tiled wall. The night nurse was kneeling on the floor in a corner, her arms around a still shaking, sedated and subdued Beth, whose hooded sweatshirt was stained red, her hair hanging in matted chunks around her face. The nurse patted her head gently.

Edward, in his robe, stood watching Beth with a glassy expression. Grace’s stomach lurched suddenly.

“Edward, what has happened?”

He didn’t answer.

She tried again. Still nothing. He didn’t even turn toward her.

“Edward?!”

He turned finally, still dazed.

“Edward? It doesn’t matter. Everyone must have heard that noise. You better go and tell them… something. Tell them that I had a nightmare.”

Edward left. The nurse was slowly standing up, still holding Beth, and gradually half dragged, half carried her back to her room. Grace’s head and gaze snapped to Ben Mason, somehow the centre of the carnage was being ignored. That nurse was worse than useless under even normal circumstances; she would never be able to handle two patients. Grace’s hand itched to grab her phone from her pocket and dial 9-1-1, but she resisted; at least Edward obviously knew better at this stage than to have done so. They were going to have to move him from here – to his bedroom?

Grace knew enough that she needed to try to staunch the blood flow. She grabbed a towel from the nurses’ station, rather hesitantly knelt down beside Ben Mason, and moved his hand out of the way with difficultly. His hand and arm had almost completely tensed up, and then he protested vehemently, crying out again and scratching at Grace’s hand. When she’d finally managed this job, she held the towel harshly to his neck. He began thrashing around, kicking and crying, making Grace’s job all the more difficult.

Edward returned. He told her exactly what had happened, and that the house seemed to have been placated and calmed.

“I cannot seem to stop the blood.”

“Where’s the nurse?”

“She’s with Beth.”

Edward walked down the short hallway to Beth’s room. He was only inside a few seconds, and dragged the nurse back out with him. She took over from Grace.  
Edward pulled his P.A. aside, “I have an idea, but we’ll have to move him”. Grace was puzzled, never mind hesitant of any of Edward’s suggestions, but they needed to do _something_ , at least Ben Mason had stopped making noise.

The nurse’s efforts didn’t seem to be any more effectual than Grace’s had been, but at least between the three of them, they were able to move Ben Mason to his room. The nurse insisted on returning to Beth immediately, she was worried her patient would throw up. She usually did when they had to sedate her, and the nurse was afraid she would choke.  
Why did that boy have to involve himself? Things had been going well lately. Beth had been talking her medication; she had been calm, docile. But seeing her brother the other day had unsettled her, maybe he reminded her of her parents. She had begun spitting out her pills again, and she’d lashed out at two nurses, scratching one quite badly. And Ben Mason thought it’d be a good idea to try to make her leave?! Grace should have known; they should have contracted another night nurse.

The blood still wasn’t stopping; Grace knew they had no choice but to involve someone else – call a doctor, or bring Ben Mason to the hospital. Just as she was about to voice her thought, Edward left suddenly, saying he was going to dress. Grace assumed he had also gone to call a doctor who they’d sometimes had to call on in the past, and she also hoped he wasn’t planning on driving Ben Mason to the hospital himself.

But he returned a minute later with the first-aid box… and the nanny!

Grace could see Jane blanch slightly at first, at the first sight of Ben Mason, but she almost immediately snapped on latex gloves and took over the towel from Grace. She did a fair job of both stopping the blood, and subduing Ben Mason, who had begun whimpering softly. For a split second Grace wondered idly how she managed to do that, that despite her somewhat haphazard manner of living, Jane radiated calmness and gentleness.

The nanny! Had he actually gotten her to sign the confidentiality papers yet? Of course he hadn't!

After a few minutes, Jane looked questioningly from Edward to Grace, and back to Edward. The cogs in Grace’s brain whirred trying to think of a rational explanation. An accident? No, too convenient, and she’d never believe that after Edward’s ‘accident’ a few weeks ago. A suicide attempt? Yes. The nanny had only briefly met him, and with the Masons as parents, no one who actually knew him could be surprised if Ben Mason had issues, if he had felt driven to this.

“Jane, Mr. Mason has been having problems for some time, this is a very sad turn of events, but alas hardly unexpected.”

Jane looked forlorn, “I think he’s going to need stitches. I can’t do that.”

Grace cleared her throat. “Edward, may I speak to you for a moment?”

With a slightly lingering glance at the nanny, he followed her from the guest wing, to the hallway outside the family bedrooms.

“Edward, what on earth are you thinking?! We could have just driven him to the hospital!”

“He would have bled to death first, and you can drive him now anyway.”

“But what did you think we would tell her? You know what will happen if that girl –”

He cut her off, “I trust Jane.”

“Why don’t you fire me then?!”

“Are you threatening me?”

Ignoring his comment, Grace snapped, “Go and get dressed so we can bring him downstairs, I will drive him myself now.”

Grace marched back to her bedroom to change. Eight years, eight blasted years of work, of pretence, of cleaning up! But she had to change now; looking in the half-length mirror, she saw in addition to the blood on her hands and arms, a large bloodstain spreading from her neck down the left side of her blouse. She undressed, showered, and put on the only semi-casual clothes she kept at Thornfield.

She returned to Ben Mason’s room. Jane was still there, a streak of blood on her forehead, her gloved hands drenched. Edward seemed to have just returned, he was dressed. He had his eyes trained on Jane but turned when Grace cleared her throat.

“Jane, I am going to drive Mr. Mason to the hospital. An ambulance would take more than double the time. Could you please assist Edward and me bringing our patient downstairs to the car?”

Grace pulled the car out of the driveway as cautiously as possible in order to create the least amount of noise. She was glad the nanny had managed to stop the bleeding. Had the wound been left to bleed freely for the entire three quarter of an hour car journey, Grace didn’t want to consider what would have been the outcome. The hospital said as much when she finally got there, and when she left an hour later, Ben Mason was stitched up, drugged up, and resting peacefully.

She returned to Thornfield as quickly as possible, she needed to talk to Edward, needed to make peace with him, needed to make him understand her concerns. All the downstairs lights were off, but she doubted he’d be asleep yet, she knew he’d want news, an update to make sure there was no suspicion, and on the part of the hospital, there wasn’t. She knocked on his bedroom door, and again a minute later when there was no answer. Eventually, she edged the door open quietly a crack, and peered in. There was no one in the room, the bed, though messy, was obviously empty. She guessed belatedly that he was probably with Beth, but on the way to the elevator, she noticed Jane’s door was open, and peeking in, Grace saw her room was also empty. So that’s where he had gone, on an outing with the nanny! Grace walked to the elevator and landed on the third floor.

The nurse was asleep at the desk of the small nurses’ station just inside the ward. Yes, she would definitely be gone tomorrow. Why was it so hard to keep good staff? This would be the third nurse she would have to replace in the space of a year. Grace walked on to the door Beth’s door, and looked through the small window. Beth was asleep on her side facing the door. Her black hair was covering her face. Grace softly opened the door, knelt beside the bed, and gently brushed Beth’s hair back from her face. After a minute, she turned slightly, sat down on the floor beside the bed, put her head in her hands, and exhaled slowly, and completely.

She only looked up when she heard footsteps on the gravel outside through the open window.


End file.
